Page 109 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

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THE TWO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALS

Two training grounds. One in the north-west of England, the other outside Barcelona. Two

fortresses. At the end of a narrow road, Carrington. Off a main motorway, the facilities at
Sant Joan Despí.
As you enter the Carrington offices, a smiling receptionist asks you to wait and then she
walks you into the press room, a small version of a school classroom. A powerful silence

embraces you. It is only broken by the voices of players, a burst of sound that disappears
behind doors that takes them to their isolated world. Then the door opens and the imposing
figure of a seventy-year-old man appears. Alex Ferguson’s frame, dressed for training, is
assertive, buoyant. His eyes are penetrating as he offers a strong handshake and the smile

he keeps for when the cameras are not around.
Above the changing rooms of Barcelona training ground, away from the footballer’s
world, is Guardiola’s office. As you go in, Tito Vilanova might be scribbling some notes at
his table. Behind him, a glass door gives way to the three- by four-metre space where Pep

spends most of the hours of every day. Guardiola’s working desk is ordered – in the centre,
the notebook; on one side, some files; on the other, books on leadership, a biography, a
history book. Pep briefly stands up and welcomes me into his office. He then sits in a chair
that suddenly becomes smaller. In fact, abruptly the whole place looks smaller than it is –

he is one of those men who fills a room with his presence.
Same as Ferguson, really.
– Pepe. Pepe Guardiola. What a fantastic job he has done.
Pep leans forward. And before he refreshes his memories of Rome and the gladiators,

Wembley and Messi and Xavi, he wants to praise everything that Ferguson stands for, what
he has achieved, what Manchester United represent on and off the pitch.
– Sir Alex couldn’t play any other way than they did in Rome. And in Wembley. It is
Manchester United after all we are talking about. They dignify football with their approach

as a club and as a team.